Irony is a literary rhetorical technique. This technique produces contradictory logic and emotions by saying the opposite, singing the opposite tone, or the thinking and emotional logic such as first promoting and then suppressing, and the bright and dark suppression, so that the reader or the audience can understand the ironic meaning of it by themselves, so as to achieve the purpose of spreading ideological concepts and changing some deep-rooted wrong thoughts. To say that the biggest satirical writer in modern and modern China, as well as the writer who most successfully used irony to create, is none other than Mr. Lu Xun. Mr. Lu Xun once expressed his understanding of the art of irony in "Essays on the Pavilion of Jieting".
"There is such a kind of person in China, if there is something wrong with him, you go to help him point it out, it was out of good intentions, but he not only couldn't listen to it, but he hated the person who helped him, I originally didn't think about how to help such people, but then I had to do it, I think how to do it well?" Irony came to mind. It is not difficult to see from Mr. Lu Xun's writings that the objects of this rhetorical technique are often those who cannot listen to the words of others, or those who can listen to the words of others but cannot understand them. For both types of people, the ironic method is particularly effective. Mr. Lu Xun used words and paper and pencil to save his life, leaving a large number of popular ironic works of art in his life, but the most classic of them is the following three sentences of "swear words", which not only does not have a dirty word, but sometimes even makes people feel that they are being praised.
First sentence: Widened
The four words that have widened up are not Mr. Lu Xun's originality, but they must have been used by Mr. Lu Xun to reach the peak of the realm. Among them, the word "wide" is an adjective usage, which means rich. These four words were originally positive meanings, used to describe a person or a certain family, who has become rich financially, or whose social status has become higher. It is widely used in novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties. However, Lu Xun used these four words vividly as a pejorative meaning, and what is more interesting is that as long as he is familiar with Mr. Lu Xun's use of these four words and the use of scenarios, it is difficult to associate them with positive meaning. In the short story "Kong Yiji", Lu Xun used this ironic technique many times to portray Kong Yiji.
For example, Lu Xun wrote: "Kong Yiji is neither a generous man who is well-bred nor a laborer who has suffered from wind and frost. At the beginning of the novel, Lu Xun opened the door and explained Kong Yiji's social class, but he used the words "a generous person who is well-respected", satirizing Kong Yiji's lack of self-knowledge at the same time, but also satirizing some rich people at that time. For another example, Kong Yiji got some money for eating wine, and for a while he did not know that the sky was thick, and for this kind of arrogant posture, Mr. Lu Xun wrote: "Kong Yiji is now really wide, and he can no longer look at the store, and he throws out a few copper plates. In this description, Lu Xun satirized Kong Yiji's appearance as a villain.
Second sentence: If you only read a book, you become a bookcase
This sentence comes from Lu Xun's "Reading Miscellaneous", which is his profound satire on a class of intellectuals in Chinese society at that time. At that time, there was such a class of intellectuals in Chinese society, who had some knowledge and culture, and even stayed in the West, but either they were completely dead readers, dead books, or they looked down on those whose knowledge and culture were inferior to theirs. For these two kinds of people, Lu Xun has a clear attitude, he believes that although the first type of people do not read much, but the heart is kind, there is not too much bad thought, some people just did not find a good way, once properly guided, they can embark on the road of Kangzhuang. For the second type of person, Lu Xun's attitude is much harsher, he believes that this kind of person has "almost rotted to the bone, rather than full of economy, it is better to be illiterate illiterate, although illiterate, but has a good heart." Instead, he argues that these people "will only do more harm if they really do bad things." ”
Third sentence: It is always harder to transform yourself than to forbid others
This satire comes from Lu Xun's "Essays on brushes and the like" in Jieting. Lu Xun's words were said in response to the pain of many utopians and even fantasists in society at that time. At that time, there were many so-called "moderate reformists" in society, who were comprehensive in their theory and educated others, but they could not do it themselves. Lu Xun did not directly expose them, but used irony. The purpose is to let these people understand how easy it is to criticize others, to accuse others, to forbid others, and how difficult it is to transform themselves. In fact, Lu Xun satirized their ultimate goal in this way, or hoped that they would get better, be able to realize their own problems, not just one finger pointing at others, but not realizing that four fingers had pointed to themselves.
Lu Xun wrote countless satirical literary works in his lifetime, and there were also many actual or fictional characters, who became the object of his "insults", and Lu Xun's satire was very profound, scolding people without dirty words, and the scolded even thought that they were praised. However, Lu Xun himself has made it clear that the ultimate purpose of any satirical work is not to satirize, but to make the satirized better and make progress. From this point of view, Mr. Lu Xun is really a good worker.